The Snuggery, a bar and grill in unincorporated McHenry County, won’t be offering video gambling any time soon, and that worries owner Freddie Hoffmann.
Video gambling is prohibited in unincorporated areas. But in the city of McHenry, about one half-mile from The Snuggery, gaming is now permitted in some establishments.
“It’s not going to be a positive impact, that’s for sure. It puts us at a disadvantage,” said Hoffmann, owner of Schaumburg-based Ala Carte Entertainment, the parent company of restaurants and bars across the Chicago area.
It’s a scenario playing out across the suburbs, as municipalities decide whether to opt out of the state’s new video gambling act.
When opting out, Schaumburg officials said they didn’t believe it was needed and video poker didn’t fit in with the rest of the community. Bill McLeod, mayor of neighboring Hoffman Estates, said local officials wanted to give businesses many options to bring in revenue. More than a dozen business owners called to inquire about adding the machines, he said.
“Over the past several years, we have had some establishments closing,” he said. “This is just another way to help keep them in business.”
In Lake County, pizzeria Rosati’s of Lakemoor is in the process of building its gaming room. Co-owner Tony Patti said declining revenues and rising taxes have put his 6-year-old business in jeopardy. He is hoping additional revenue from gaming – and possibly a few new customers – can help offset expenses.
“I look at it as another little business venture in our store,” Patti said. “I don’t know what the market will bring.”
The Snuggery’s Hoffmann compares the new video poker rules to Illinois’ smoking ban. Hoffmann, whose Ala Carte Entertainment owns establishments near the Illinois-Wisconsin border, said that ban drove patrons out of state to bars where they could smoke. He worries differing philosophies on video gambling could have a similar effect.
Fox Lake Mayor Ed Bender said establishments in his community seeking video gambling permits aren’t likely to attract major crowds solely because of gaming. The businesses are small operations and would only be allowed a maximum five video poker machines. Serious gamblers would likely head to riverboats and casinos across the region, he said.
“It’s a draw to a lot of people at first. Then, that fad begins to fade, and then you just get the locals,” said North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr.His community approved video gambling, but he doesn’t thing gambling alone will draw people from nearby communities where it is banned, such as Waukegan and Lake Bluff.
Not all businesses are ready to sign on, either. Wheeling recently allowed the machines, but Joe Kilcoyne, whose family has owned Kilcoyne Redwood Inn for more than four decades, said he doesn’t want the machines. He said he benefits more financially from people spending money on food and drinks, and he believes video poker would change the friendly, conversational atmosphere of the tavern.
“I’m not worried about missing the boat,” he said.
As for loss of potential customers, he said he doesn’t fear the competition.
“They can have them,” Kilcoyne said.
As the Illinois Gaming Board prepares to green-light video poker games across the state, gambling officials have gone community-by-community to determine whether the games will be legal.
Not only, have state officials had to determine whether a city or village has opted out of the new video poker law, but whether a communities have old anti-gambling laws – some decades old – that would prevent the games.
Here are the conclusions the Gaming Board has reached for Northwest suburban communities:
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Banned:
Algonquin
Arlington Heights
Barrington
Buffalo Grove
Cary
Crystal Lake
Des Plaines
Fox River Grove
Hanover Park
Mount Prospect
Niles
Palatine
Park Ridge
Rolling Meadows
Rosemont
Schaumburg
South Barrington
Streamwood
Unincorporated Cook County
Unincorporated McHenry County
Allowed:
Barrington Hills
Bartlett
Elk Grove Village
Hoffman Estates
Huntley
Inverness
Lake-in-the-Hills
Morton Grove
Port Barrington
Prospect Heights
Wheeling
Undetermined:
Golf
As the Illinois Gaming Board prepares to green-light video poker games across the state, gambling officials have gone community-by-community to determine whether the games will be legal.
Not only have state officials had to determine whether a city or village has opted out of the new video poker law, but whether a communities have old anti-gambling laws – some decades old – that would prevent the games.
Here are the conclusions the Gaming Board has reached for north and near northwest suburban communities:
Banned
Bannockburn
Beach Park
Deer Park
Deerfield
Evanston
Glencoe
Glenview
Grayslake
Green Oaks
Hainesville
Hawthorn Woods
Highland Park
Highwood
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Island Lake
Kenilworth
Kildeer
Lake Barrington
Lake Bluff
Lake Forest
Lake Zurich
Libertyville
Lincolnshire
Lincolnwood
Long Grove
Mettawa
Mundelein
North Barrington
Northbrook
Northfield
Park City
Riverwoods
Round Lake
Skokie
Third Lake
Unincorporated Cook County
Unincorporated Lake County
Vernon Hills
Volo
Wadsworth
Waukegan
Wilmette
Winnetka
Zion
Allowed
Fox Lake
Lake Villa
North Chicago
Round Lake Heights
Wauconda
Undetermined:
Antioch
Indian Creek
Lindenhurst
Old Mill Creek
Tower Lakes
Winthrop Harbor